Poetry corner: The Frivolous Cake

It's rare to read a book and feel that you're experiencing genius, but that's exactly how I felt about Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (and his other two Gormenghast novels, though Titus Groan is the strongest).  Peake's facility with language in general and metaphor in particular is breathtaking, and I mean that almost literally; there were times when I'd read a passage so perfect that my breath would catch, or I'd laugh out loud, or I'd shake my head in wonder as I reread it.  I'm usually impatient with authors who offer stylistic mastery in lieu of (or at least at the expense of) story—Thomas Pynchon, anyone?—and there's no doubt that Peake is guilty of that sin, but in his case it almost feels like a virtue.

We're here for the poetry, though, right?  So without further ado here's "The Frivolous Cake" from Titus Groan (which isn't representative of Peake's style generally, but is strong enough to stand on its own):

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A freckled and frivolous cake there was
     That sailed upon a pointless sea,
Or any lugubrious lake there was
     In a manner emphatic and free.
How jointlessly, and how jointlessly
     The frivolous cake sailed by
On the waves of the ocean that pointlessly
     Threw fish to the lilac sky.

Oh, plenty and plenty of hake there was
     Of a glory beyond compare,
And every conceivable make there was
     Was tossed through the lilac air.

Up the smooth billows and over the crests
     Of the cumbersome combers flew
The frivolous cake with a knife in the wake
     Of herself and her curranty crew.
Like a swordfish grim it would bounce and skim
     (This dinner knife fierce and blue),
And the frivolous cake was filled to the brim
     With the fun of her curranty crew.

Oh, plenty and plenty of hake there was
     Of a glory beyond compare -
And every conceivable make there was
     Was tossed through the lilac air.

Around the shores of the Elegant Isles
     Where the cat-fish bask and purr
And lick their paws with adhesive smiles
     And wriggle their fins of fur,
They fly and fly 'neath the lilac sky -
     The frivolous cake, and the knife
Who winketh his glamorous indigo eye
     In the wake of his future wife.

The crumbs blow free down the pointless sea
     To the beat of a cakey heart
And the sensitive steel of the knife can feel
     That love is a race apart
In the speed of the lingering light are blown
     The crumbs to the hake above,
And the tropical air vibrates to the drone
     Of a cake in the throes of love.

Comments

[MFB]

O here it is!
And there it is!
And no-one knows whose share it is
Nor dares to stake a claim;
But we have seen it in the air
A fairy -- like a William pear
With but itself to blame.

A thug it is!
And smug it is!
And like a floating pug it is!
Above the orchard trees
It has no right -- no right at all
To soar above the orchard wall
With chilblains on its knees!

(From memory.)

[Thomas Daulton]

Hey, this is totally off topic of course, but you don't have a mailto address. I really thought you should see this since you wrote an article on "Fleet Week", what, something like a month ago...

"Imperial Fleet Week" in San Francisco, one of the City's many traditions.

http://current.com/items/89204971_death_star_over_san_francisco?xid=55

[John Caruso]

MFB: Nicely done, especially from memory....

Thomas: Is there supposed to be a video there? I can see the still of the Death Star over the city (har), but nothing on the main page, no matter how I look at it (which browser, which page on the site, etc).

[ Hint: "john at" works. I used to have a different contact email address on here—looks like it may have gotten lost with one of TypePad's updates. ]

[Thomas Daulton]

Yes there's a video, I had no problems watching it on IE or Firefox both at work and at home... it's about 3 minutes of a wide assortment of Imperial ships hanging around San Francisco, and the San Franciscans nonchalantly going about their business. It's hilarious...

I don't know why you wouldn't be able to see the video, it is right on the page there that I cited, at the top as you say, there should be a triangular "play" button in the middle of the page, the video starts to load when you hit the "play" button. Perhaps you have not updated your "Adobe Flash player" or "Active-X" or some minor software crap like that. Make sure your software is current, is all I can say at this point.

Since you seem to be interested, I have some ripping software, I might be able to download it, change it into an AVI or MPEG or something, and then mail it to the address you mention. But I'm at work, all that stuff is at home, I'll get to that over the weekend if you still can't see the video.

[John Caruso]

Figured it out: cookies. They need 'em, I have 'em turned off for basically all sites (IE and Firefox). Should have guessed.

So: Yeah, very jocular. That's just about how I feel about Fleet Week. Which is part of why poetry about horny knives and silly cakes makes me so happy.

[Thomas Daulton]

Heehee! Great. :)